


Trial Day

by Beryll (Rynthjan)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Aliens, Malicorn, Pigs, phoenix empire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-23
Updated: 2014-06-23
Packaged: 2018-02-05 21:32:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1832986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rynthjan/pseuds/Beryll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A very special day in the life of an ordinary Malino girl</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trial Day

K'lia woke with a groan and blindly fumbled for the beeping alarm clock on her nightstand. For a confused moment she wondered whether she had accidentally set it for way too soon since she felt like she had only slept two or three hours. 

Then she remembered that she probably hadn't slept any longer since she hadn't been able to fall asleep at all last night. In fact that explained the stabbing pain in her neck - she feeling around she found the thick paperback she had been reading to pass the time until sunrise. With a sigh she pulled it out and started smoothing the pages she had creased. With a fond kiss to the cover she put her beloved edition of Sir Yaden's early adventures on her nightstand.

Stretching her arms over her head she closed her eyes for a moment and breathed in and out a few times.

There was no reason to be nervous.

She and Frederick had practiced every single part of the test over and over again. They would pass with flying colours. They were a great team and neither of them would let the other down. That was after all what really qualified them for the job.

"K'lia? Are you awake yet?!" J'thoni's loud voice outside her door was accompanied by a shy knock.

"Yes, come in." K'lia answered with a smile.

Immediately the door was yanked open and her younger brother barrelled into her room, jumping on the bed. He was already fully dressed and had his school rucksack in his arms.

"I just wanted to wish you luck for the trials!" J'thoni said with all the earnest seriousness one would expect from an eight year old boy, who knew quite well how important this day was for his big sister.

"Thank you." K'lia replied just as earnestly and hugged him.

"J'thoni! You'll be late for the bus!" Their mother called from downstairs. Her brother quickly hopped off the bed again, waved at her and then ran off.

K'lia followed suit. Getting out of bed wasn't hard with all the nervous energy that coursed through her again now. She would probably drop asleep like a rock tonight, but now she was wide awake. She yanked open the curtains to let in the bright Malicorn morning sun. Then she went for a quick shower and only fifteen minutes later she was heading downstairs herself, pulling her trainee t-shirt over her still wet hair.

She passed by the kitchen with a quick "Morning mom." without even looking in. First she had to check on Frederick. She knew that her mother wouldn't be angry. In fact she approved of how responsibly her daughter handled her partner.

The pigsty was located behind the house. K'lia had built it herself with her father's help. Frederick had it all to himself with a bit of pasture fenced off from the rest of the garden. There even was a small wallow for him.

When K'lia had first announced what she planned to do with her life after graduating from school, her father had been anything but pleased. He would much have preferred for her to choose a more traditional Youh'Kai profession.

Her grandparents had moved to Malicorn shortly after they had gotten married. On Yaiciz their future would have been endless hours working in some factory. Being lucky enough to have distant relatives on Malicorn they had been granted citizenship and with that the right to live and work on Malicorn. With the tourism trade picking up they had taken a chance and opened a beetle shack on the Rasher - which back then had been a freshly built long road along the beach - nowhere near as packed with restaurants and entertainment establishments as it was nowadays. That small shack had been their key to success and slowly been extended to become THE go to place for original Youh'Kai cuisine, the 'Burning Beetle'. Today her parents employed Youh'Kai chefs from Far'Gesh, Aylian and Agrabar, providing the full spectrum of what Youh'Kai food could be.

K'lia had never been interested in Youh'Kai food. She was born and raised on Malicorn and considered herself a proper Malino girl - and that very much included pork, bacon and an occasional eggplant. Beetles really didn't do anything for her. So joining the family business had never been an option. They were lucky J'thoni was her opposite and would happily take over the restaurant one day.

Like her, Frederick was already up and about. He ran to the gate in the fence the moment he saw her to greet her with a cheerful squeak. 

Compared to the famous pigs that produced Malicorn's pork he was tiny and even compared to a swinging pig he was small. His type had been bred for generations to be used to forage for rare and tasty roots, found in the low hills. They were agile, smart, friendly and quite hardy, with a very short brown fur, a snort snout ideal for digging and long, floppy ears.

The Malicorn Board of Tourism had come up with a new use for the breed. They were trained as rescue and security pigs, able to locate lost kids or relatives in the usual, confusing throng of Malicorn's tourism centres or working as living detectors for drugs and other illicit contraband at the spaceport. 

Being a pig handler had become a quite prestigious job over the last decade since the cute rescue pigs with their colourful banderols were also a great publicity source and tourists loved having their photos taken with them. Handlers were employed by the government and entitled to the full amenities package like guaranteed vacation time, health insurance and retirement plans.

For K'lia the main incentive had been that she would spend her life helping people. But the other perks sure helped in cementing her decision. After she had been paired with Frederick there had been no going back. He was the best animal friend anyone could ask for.

Now K'lia vigorously rubbed his neck, making him grunt with pleasure. "Are you ready, my boy?" she asked him. "Today is our big day."

He grinned up at her. Even though he didn't understand her words, he could tell how excited she was and it rubbed off on him. She quickly filled his trough and put fresh water in his dish.

"Time to feed myself." She told him. "Do not go in the wallow." She then added in the clear command voice she had learned.

There were many key phrases she had trained Frederick in. 'Wallow' was not on the official list, but Frederick understood her perfectly well. He mournfully eyed his favourite resting place, but then obediently trotted off to his trough. He was a very good pig, she hardly ever had to scold him for anything. She silently promised that she would spend an hour with him in the wallow, scrubbing him with mud, if they passed the trials.

Then she ran inside to grab her own breakfast. Her mother had already prepared a bowl of bacon crunchies for her.

When she had first brought Frederick home, her father had joked that she would have to give up her love for pork and bacon now. K'lia had done no such thing and didn't see any reason to. After all the pigs that produced Malicorn pork were nothing like her rescue pig. And how could anyone not love bacon, anyway? Even Frederick loved bacon crunchies.

She drenched her crunchies in pineapple juice and dug in.

"Frederick all ready?" Her mother asked, washing drying the dishes J'thoni and her father had left.

With time they had all accepted Frederick as a family member, no matter how dubious that had started out at K'lia's choice in profession.

"I'll give him a quick dusting before we head out." K'lia answered around a mouthful of crunchies. "But he has been good. Still squeaky clean from last night's washing."

She had spent a good part of the last evening cleaning Frederick from snout to curly tail. After all he had to look his best today.

"Maybe you should also brush your own hair, sweety." Her mother commented with a smirk.

K'lia ran her fingers through her mop of wavy, light-green hair and grimaced as she encountered tangles. 

As soon as she was old enough to make decision on the length of her hair she had cut them short so they didn't get in the way. Only when she had started her rescue pig handler training, her teacher had suggested growing it long again. After all she would be representing Malicorn and a pleasant appearance that would look good on photos was an important part of that. Most tourists that came to Malicorn expected to meet the fabled 'nice' Youh'Kai of the planet. And that very much included long, wavy, light-green hair, apparently.

Her mother smiled at her expression and got up. "I'll get the brush and make you presentable, you just keep eating." She said.

She was delighted at how her wild tom-boy of a daughter had grown into a responsible and pretty young adult over the three years of her training. 

Half an hour later she headed back out, to get Frederick, now sufficiently prettified. She found Frederick already standing at the gate, snuffling excitedly. She quickly brushed him and then put his harness on. If they passed the tests, today would be the last day he wore the green harness of a trainee pig. With a wistful sigh K'lia imagined him and herself in the red and white of the real rescue pig teams.

Like most of Malena's many citizen's and guests they took the bus to get from the quiet residential area on the northern edge of the city to get to the Swinodrome. The rescue pig training facility was one of the many auxiliary buildings near the great stadium, but today she was heading straight to the Swinodrom itself. Since there were no events scheduled, they would be using the arena for the trials.

The security guards posted at the eastern service entrance waved her through with a smile, recognizing her trainee shirt and of course Frederick's harness. The papers of the people coming right after her were checked carefully. A lot of volunteers were needed for the trials. After all a crowd had to be simulated for the pigs to search in for a particular person.

The great grassy expanse of the arena was already filling with people. Most were the volunteers, standing near a long table laden with various refreshments to keep them entertained until the actual trials started.

K'lia headed for the small group of people and pigs who wore the same trainee green she and Frederick did. They were greeted with nervous grins and happy squeaks. They had studied and trained together for three years now. There were good friends and bitter rivals among the trainees, but today they were all unified in their nervousness and hope to succeed. 

Only two of them were still missing when K'lia joined them and they arrived soon after. On this all important day they were all early. 

The pigs were picking up on their partner's nervousness and staying close to them, including reassuring bumps with their snouts and calming grunts. Since they had all been trained at taking care of panicked humans they were quite good at it too.

Supervisors started dividing the volunteers into groups and herding them to their designated spots. The trainees watched as their chief trainer approached. Max was a huge, beefy man who had started his career as an abysmally bad swine swinger. Too smart and too ugly, he liked to joke. He showed a big, confident grin now which helped them calm down a little.

"Alright, kids." He greeted them. "I see you are all ready to get started."

They all nodded.

"We'll be running three trials at once." Max explained the setup. "The huge group over there is for the 'find person in crowd' part. For the tracking trial you will start over there at that gate and then head into the service tunnels. The personal care test is over there with the fake tourists."

The personal care test was the only one K'lia was scared off. She had no doubt that Frederick would do his part perfectly. But taking care of crying, panicking tourists, talking to them, extracting vital information and calming them down - that was K'lia's part of the job. She was good at it, but she couldn't help feeling like she would ruin it. 

She hoped that she would be one of the last to be called for this test since she had heard that the volunteers playing the distraught tourists got tired of crying and panicking the longer the had to pretend and were easier to calm down later in the day.

That hope was short lived as Max called her name: "K'lia? You're first for the personal care test. You and Frederick ready?"

She got sympathetic groans and pats on the shoulders from her fellow trainees. With a deep breath she squared her shoulders, put on a bright smile and nodded. "Aye."

She followed Max to where a smaller group of volunteers were clustered around a supervisor who was still busy handing out their designated roles. While they waited for everyone to be sorted out and in their assigned places, Max clasped K'lia's shoulder reassuringly.

"Don't worry, girl, you've got this." He told her quietly. "You're good with people."

Of course he sensed her nervousness. After all he wasn't just the chief trainer, he also was one of the first original rescue pig handlers.

"Thank you, sir." She answered just as quietly.

Then the supervisor called her and Frederick forward and the test began. It turned out she had really worried over nothing. Consoling a panicked mother who couldn't find her small son wasn't that hard. All she really needed was a confident person telling her that everything would be alright. Having Frederick with her, who at the same time looked serious and professional as adorable, was a big help too. 

It only took a few minutes and the supervisor called a loud "Pass!" out to her and the 'grieving mother' laughed and asked whether she was allowed to pet the 'impossibly cute pig'.

The rest of the trials were a breeze. The hardest thing K'lia was tasked with all day was actually calming down Cynthia, one of her fellow trainees, who broke down with a panic attack some time around lunch when her pig Sebastian threw up some green slime. It quickly turned out that one of the stupid volunteers had let him eat some jello. After drinking some water Sebastian was perfectly fine and K'lia was praised once more for her people skills.

It was late afternoon when finally everyone had completed their trials and only two of the trainees hadn't passed. Barney had lost his patience with the 'loud mouthed tourist trying to fondle his pig' and everyone had known that little Wendy really wasn't ready yet for active duty. She and her pig would go back to training and try again next year.

Most of the volunteers stayed for the ceremony when the trainees were given their new uniforms and the rescue pig got their new harnesses. There even was an official from the ducal palace handing out the commissions.

K'lia didn't cry when she put the brand new red and white harness with the tiny black dragon on the breast part on Frederick. But when she noticed her parents among the crowd of volunteers she couldn't help a few tears of happiness falling.

Apparently a few friends and family members had been allowed into the Swinodrom for the ceremony and now were coming up to the newly employed rescue pig handlers to properly congratulate them. Having her parents tell her how proud they were of her was the cherry on top of the cake of this perfect day.

Or so she thought until she finally was back home. It was after dinner and like she had promised she headed out to the pigsty to give Frederick his much deserved mud bath.

It was a typical beautiful, warm Malicorn evening. After scrubbing him for almost half an hour they both sat in the wallow, covered in mud from head to toe and snout to curly tail. K'lia had one arm wrapped around her pig friend and looked up at the stars.

"We are the luckiest people in the world, you know?" she told Frederick.

He grunted in agreement.


End file.
